Anthony Joshua v Oleksandr Usyk II: world heavyweight boxing championship – live!
- Updates from the rematch in Jeddah – 10.54pm BST start
- Get in touch! Email Bryan or tweet @BryanAGraham
And now for the $80m elephant in the room. That’s the record site fee which Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has reportedly paid for the right to stage tonight’s rematch with Usyk and Joshua due to clear around $35m apiece. Nice work if you can get it.
But the event has also drawn fierce backlash from critics who accuse the Saudi government of using sports to launder the kingdom’s dismal human rights record, alleged ties to the September 11 attacks, severe repression of women’s and LGBTQ+ rights and the 2018 murder of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Guardian can reveal that Joshua was recently sent a letter by Yasser al-Khayat, whose brother Mustafa was killed in the largest mass execution in Saudi Arabia’s history, asking him to follow the lead of Muhammad Ali and Lewis Hamilton by standing up for freedom and human rights in the buildup to his world title fight which takes place in Jeddah on Saturday.
“My brother was executed by the Saudi Arabian authorities for daring to ask for basic human rights that you enjoy in the UK,” the letter tells Joshua. “He was one of the 81 men killed in the largest mass execution in the country’s history. Over half of them, including Mustafa, were executed for taking part in pro-democracy protests.
Continue reading...ALL Credit of this post going to https://www.theguardian.com
Comments
Post a Comment
Ask me anything here...